Mnangagwa likens himself to Margaret Thatcher

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has equated himself and his rise to power as equivalent to that of the late British Premier Margaret Thatcher who was popularly know as The Iron Lady.
 
Writing in a column on Financial Times on  Tuesday Mnangagwa said, "When Margaret Thatcher was elected UK prime minister in 1979, she recognised that piecemeal change would not be sufficient to tackle the problems of labour unrest, rampant inflation and economic stagnation. A wholesale transformation and modernisation of the British economy was required. While there would inevitably be downsides to such rapid change, Thatcher was undeterred.

"The challenges that Zimbabwe faces today are no less acute. But my government is committed to tackling them head on. Like Thatcher, we are not afraid of taking tough, and at times painful, decisions. As she used to put it, there is no alternative. Thatcher  said: Yes, the medicine is harsh, but the patient requires it in order to live."

However Prof Jonathan Moyo posted on Twitter denying that Mnangagwa wrote that article and claiming it was written by a ghost writer.

The well read ghost writer of this Machiavellian piece with the right words, whose audience are foreign readers of @FT, is not the Mamvura who is driving the bus in Harare! https://t.co/1ApFwyYWB0

— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) November 13, 2018

Recently top lawyer and civil rights activist, Advocate Fadzai Mahere took it upon herself to seek clarification from Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on what President Mnangagwa really meant when he said 'we must take the pain'.

"My question is to do with the meaning of taking the pain. Does it cover Presidential travel - eg use of Swiss jets vs Air Zimbabwe?  Does it include endless foreign trips by Govt that cost the fiscus? Does it only apply to citizens?" Mahere asked.